I am using this blog to record my genealogy research progress. My research at this point is concentrated in Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky and Pennsylvania records. Since many of my ancestors ended up in the Midwest and West my research sometimes takes me in that direction. I also research Irish records.

Friday, May 4, 2012

Join the Marines see Nicaragua??

I've been collecting family pictures and scanning them for a Family History book. When I found a song at YouTube called Nicaragua I knew I needed to make a photo video (just click above to watch).
My grandfather Charles Lynn Forgey was a US Marine. He joined the Marines in June 1916 (he was actually under age at the time so he lied about his age). First stationed at Mare Island Alameda, California he shipped out to Nicaragua in 1917.

Isis Forgey death record

My grandfather met and married my grandmother in Nicaragua. He remained in Nicaragua after his June 1920 discharge. He worked in the Chontales Honduras gold mines and for the Asotria Mahogany Comapny which was based in New York. Two children were born in Nicaragua. Isis Forgey (misspelled Hayses in her birth record) and my mother Edna Forgey. Isis was the oldest and sadly died a few months after her birth in 1920. According to the death record she died at half past 2 am on May 13, 1920 of an acute Gastrointestinal Infection. My mother was stung by a scorpion as a toddler and had to learn to walk a second time after that.
The family left Nicaragua in 1925 aboard the mail steamer Venezuela. My mother recalls leaving Nicaragua. She rode on a mule or donkey to the ship. She remembers monkeys trowing twigs. She threw one of her shoes overboard once they got on the ship. She also remembers the cabin steward was Chinese. Most of the passengers were American. They stopped at Mazatlan Mexico where passengers were taken off in baskets for site seeing.
They landed in San Pedro California where the family lived a short time.

Forgey family Passenger list (my mother didn't come over stowed away on a banana boat as my father said lol).